Reflective polarizers composed of a plurality of microlayers whose in-plane refractive indices are selected to provide a substantial refractive index mismatch between adjacent microlayers along an in-plane block axis and a substantial refractive index match between adjacent microlayers along an in-plane pass axis, with a sufficient number of layers to ensure high reflectivity for normally incident light polarized along the block axis while maintaining low reflectivity and high transmission for normally incident light polarized along the pass axis, have been known for some time. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,729 (Rogers), U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,305 (Rogers et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,949 (Schrenk et al.).
More recently, researchers from 3M Company have pointed out the significance of layer-to-layer refractive index characteristics of such films along the direction perpendicular to the film, i.e. the z-axis, and shown how these characteristics play an important role in the reflectivity and transmission of the films at oblique angles of incidence. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,774 (Jonza et al.). Jonza et al. teach, among other things, how a z-axis mismatch in refractive index between adjacent microlayers, more briefly termed the z-index mismatch or Δnz, can be tailored to allow the construction of multilayer stacks for which the Brewster angle—the angle at which reflectance of p-polarized light at an interface goes to zero—is very large or is nonexistent. This in turn allows for the construction of multilayer mirrors and polarizers whose interfacial reflectivity for p-polarized light decreases slowly with increasing angle of incidence, or is independent of angle of incidence, or increases with angle of incidence away from the normal direction. As a result, multilayer films having high reflectivity for both s- and p-polarized light for any incident direction in the case of mirrors, and for the selected direction in the case of polarizers, over a wide bandwidth, can be achieved.